Calm before the…

We took this cycle off of insemming, so there’s no stress about the period coming or not coming. However, we did have a consultation with a fertility specialist, who I’ll refer to as Dr. Q (which admittedly isn’t a very decieving nickname, but whatever), and we have decided to go full tilt boogie with fertility meds this upcoming cycle. What exactly will mean?

I definitely should not have named this blog “fivegrandbaby.” This will push us well into six grand.

On the day my period starts, I’m to call the clinic. On Day 3, they will do an ultrasound to check out my ovaries and see what my dosage will be. They’ll order the dosage and I’ll start taking it on Day 4.

The medicine will be administered by the Swashbuckler via shots, once a day for 10 days. Before this 10 days is up, Dr. Q will perform a hysterscopy, wherein he will insert a camera into uterus area to check out a possible polyp that might be hanging out there. If he sees it, he’ll remove it, and he assures me my lining will heal in plenty of time to welcome a baby.

Once the 10 days and 2-3 ultrasounds are passed, Dr. Q will determine that the follicles are ready to be released. Cue shot #11 – the HCG trigger shot, which will tell my ovaries to get rid of any and all mature eggs. Ideally, 3-5 eggs will be produced, but the important thing is, the *quality* of these eggs will be the best they can be, so even if there’s only 1 or 2, we’re doing everything we can to make sure the quality is at its highest.

36 hours after HCG will be the insemination. I’ll return to Nurse Knock-up, who has our swimmers, and she’ll inseminate me.

The day after my insemination, I’ll start on progesterone supplements. Nurse Knock-up feels that I should get my progesterone tested around 8 days after the IUI to see if I NEED the progesterone supplements, but Dr. Q says I should just go on them from the day after the IUI. There are two schools of thought on who to trust here: Dr. Q is… well, a Doctor… and Nurse Knock-up is not. He probably knows what’s better for me. On the other hand, Nurse Knock-up is a woman, and Dr. Q is not. Why does this matter? The progesterone supplements come in the form of vaginal suppositores that I will have to, uh… administer 2x a day until doctor tells me to stop or I have a confirmed negative pregnancy blood test. If I get pregnant, when will doctor tell me to stop taking the progesterone? Oh, probably not until 10-12 weeks into my pregnancy. I’d rather be safe than sorry, so I’m going with Dr. Q. Bring on the progesterone! One thing that does concern me is that I really have been firm about no longer taking pregnancy tests unless I know I’m pregnant (i.e., my period is a week or so late). I’ve seen too many negative results. On progesterone, however, I will have to take a test on probably day 15. If it’s positive, HOORAY! If it’s negative, I need to get a blood test confirming the negative, because once you stop taking progesterone, your period starts, even if there’s an embryo in there. (Clearly this changes as the pregnancy develops, but early on, if you start taking progesterone, you can’t just stop willy nilly.)

The Swashbuckler and I are really excited to start this process. It will be the most control we’ve ever had over a cycle. The only bummer is that it still doesn’t guarantee any success. However, I’m optimistic. It’s certainly not going to DECREASE our chances. This will be our sixth try – the luck has to be on our side soon enough, right? And in this case, we’re removing as much margin of error as possible.

Dr. Q told us that the hardest part of this whole process is for us to just calm down. He likened it to a roller coaster – there are ups and downs, but you make it out okay, and he said, “I’m confident you’ll make it out a mom.”